Membership Subscription Fee $3 - Is this too much?
Hey guys,
I have had a few reservations about charging a fee to use my platform. I have this idea that people are not going to pay $3 a month for a service that can potentially make them money. My site provides available wall spaces across the US for them to make money. Originally thinking that artists were not the most paid individuals, I had a hard time coming to this agreement that they will pay this $36 annual fee. I does not seem like alot, but I am a little unsure.
Have you all had the same reservations about charging a fee for your service, thinking that no one would pay?
Trending on Indie Hackers
Charge more! 😉
What’s easier to handle, 10 clients paying $20 a month? Or 100 clients paying $2 a month? (It’s the first one 🙃)
Raising your prices also shows more value, despite if it’s the same bts either way.
"What’s easier to handle, 10 clients ... Or 100 clients"
the flip side is that if you have 100 clients then that's a lot more people talking about you and recommending you.
That is true. It honestly depends if you would rather have more work and more recommendations, or less work and less recommendations.
I see what you mean.
you're right - I just don't know if artists, being that this is their livelihood, wont be able to afford this, especially for newer artists, but I see your point =)
$9/mo or $72/year (4 months free) is a great deal! If you'll price your service to cheap, people will treat it as cheap as well!
How much money can you make for them?
You need to figure this out and clearly communicate it in an easy to understand way:
'Earn up to $2,500 per month with access to exclusive wall space'
Re-enforced with case studies and testimonials:
'I've been using Jordan's app for 6 months now and I'm making on average of $4,500 per month!'
Then charge based on the value you can provide.
$3/mo is too low, they'd need to be making $5/mo for pricing this low to make sense.
If you can provide a lot of monetary value, you may want to consider charging a commission instead.
Totally agree with the comments here!
Charging $3/mo is probably too low and will devalue what you offer.
A good example: Patreon actually recommend that all creators on their platform charge a minimum of $5/mo and charge more fees to those who charge their fans less).
Pricing is always a difficult thing to get right, for all businesses. You could try starting out lower and keeping your early adopters on that price, and then gradually increasing that price as you grow. Most online subscription businesses do this precisely to test what pricing works best for their business.
Agree with this comment and wanted to add: actually, some patreon creators charge less than the recommended minimum of $5/month. I guess, it's whatever they can bet on to stay solvent. Also, it's worth considering discount if paid for a year up front.
Oh totally, some creators do charge less but Patreon have tried to persuade persuade creators to charge more because they have seen those that charge too little tend to churn out, and they want their creators to succeed.
On second look, it seems they've changed the incentive from $5 to $3 and above now:
For all pledges $3 or less, apply 5% + 10 cents
For all pledges over $3, apply 2.9% + 30 cents
So maybe the $3 mark is more popular on the platform now.
Annual subscriptions with a discount are a great idea, too!
Definitely not too much! I would charge a higher amount. But if you plan to have a premium subscription, it might work to get the artist involved with the platform.
Thats way too little for a service like that. Charge like $20/month at the very least.
You have a psychological problem you really need to overcome if you're to make it. Charge. Why do you have a problem charging people $3 a month. How many products can you buy for $3 today? $3 is not much if you're providing a valuable service. I have lots of snow right now. I'll pay someone $100 to come shovel it. $3 btw is too little to charge for any service that will make people money unless you're charging per use.
I like the idea about find these platforms for the artists. If I understand this correctly, you would provide a list of wall spaces they can put some art. Would they make money because the wall owners would pay them to put the art there?
The only way to find out if $36 annually is enough, is how many people do you see subscribing? I could see that being a good price point for a small artist. I can see it as way too low for a marketing firm looking to do a guerilla ad campaign.
It sounds like a two-sided marketplace, where you are connecting artists with canvas owners. If you don't want to charge a subscription, you could charge a fee for connecting the artist with the canvas.
Yes, precisely. So two sided - artists sign up searching for opportunities to install legal street art, we take a % from any commissioned pieces. However, there are going to be a larger user base of artists across the US and globe. So I am trying to justify that fee for that larger user base. Let's say there are 15k artist in the US, is $3 too much or too little?
Would the artists get something premium by paying for the subscription? If not, you would only be limiting the number of bidders on a wall space, which is where I suspect you might get most of your money. It sounds like you would be handicapping yourself there.
You could create premium features like:
I just don't think you want to get into the situation where people have to pay to get access to the wall space, and when they don't get a space they want, you're going to get refund requests, and that's not worth your hassle for $3 a month.
I do think you should look into adding in your roadmap some sort of power user (ad agencies) who might want to secure 10 or 20 wall spaces at a time and in multiple cities. Those you could charge 500, 1000 a month to without them thinking twice.
Wow, this was insanely insightful. I totally agree with you.
So I was saying the premium is, the fact that they have the opportunity to search for paid opportunities. I was also thinking of charging a monthly $3 for people who just want to pay for free walls anywhere we have them. Usually you need a permit or permission to do this, so I think the value add is piece of mind. Thoughts?
I would flip it -- everyone can bid on the paid opportunities, which creates a better experience for the person commissioning it by giving them more options and increasingly the likelihood that they'll issue the commission (and you'll get your cut). Then, only the premium users get to find out where the free wall spaces are so they can get the inside track on practicing their craft while they wait for their next commissioned piece, and get piece of mind knowing they can do it there safely.
Ultimately -- I think piece of mind is worth more than $3 a month. In my mind, $5 and $3 occupy the same space, so I would at least increase it to that much.